For many of us, the ability to upgrade armor slots becomes harder and harder as you progress in level. Without the avaliable support of a higher-end guild (for some) or the ability to be online for everything your guild does, slots often stay un-upgraded for many months. In my case, my range slot was terribly outdated when I reached 65.
After searching Alla and a few other sites for something that would be within my guild's reach, a friend mentioned the "Secrets of the Planes" quest that starts and ends in PoK. A bit of research and I realized you can complete this quest with a bit of luck and some dedication (or a bunch of plat if you want to throw it at the problem and skip the hard parts -- the quest is 100% MQ'able after attaining the Planar Traveller's Guide).
The Secrets of the Planes is a progressive quest series that starts with a quest known as Willamina's Needles (http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=2183) from Willamina the halfling, located near the druid/wizard port in location in PoK.
(I will fill in the steps checklist-style after this post goes up -- it is about 10 steps long)
Successfully completing this quest results in the "Planar Traveller's Guide"
The next sections of the quest are the Beginning through Advanced Manual quests -- there is one quest series for each discipline: Magic, Stealth, and Combat.
Note: in each quest series the "Planar Traveller's Guide" is required to begin them -- thus you will need to do the Willamina's Needles quest three times to get the guide to begin the next series - also, they can be done in any order. You also must have the needed manual on your person while talking to the NPCs to get the text to progress (turn-in can still be done, but if you want to see it, make sure you have both)Beginner Magic Manual (http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=2218)
This quest starts with Acomar Lothwol, an NPC in the magic tower on the "good" side of PoK (this is the tower that is "attached" with a flying buttress from the PoK main wall).
Loc: p680, p820
He asks for a Hobgoblin Suprise and your Planar Traveller's Guide. The Hobgoblin Suprise is made using the baking tradeskill, or purchased in the bazaar. It requires hobgoblin meat from the Hobgoblins that inhabit the shores of the river and cave system in the Plane of Nightmare. Once you have made or bought the Hobgoblin Suprise, turn it and your Planar Traveller's Guide in to him for the BEGINNING MAGIC MANUAL.
Components: Brown Gravy, hobgoblin meat (from PoN), loaf of bread, pie tin -- combined in a tanaan oven. EQtraders lists this as a >250 baking skill combine.
Intermediate Magic Manual (http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=2228)
Cadelid Estord, located right next to Acomar is the next NPC needed. Talking to him reveals that he seeks the heart of a dark presence -- the Heart of Vhaksiz.
The Heart of Vhaksiz drops from Vhaksiz the Shade (http://eqbeastiary.allakhazam.com/search.shtml?id=10238) in the Plane of Nightmare. He is located up on the hill that is reached through the hobgoblin caves. He hits relatively hard, and rampages, so chose your group(s) carefully. He can be pulled without agro'ing the four horses around him, assuming you have killed one to give yourself somewhere to pull to.
Reaching Vhaksiz can be done in two ways: First, by taking your groups through the hobgoblin caves and up to the plataeu, or by utilizing two clerics and a SoS-capable rogue.
(after I get a map up, I can document this pull strategy)After attaining the heart (which can be MQ'd in the usual manner), turn it in to Cadelid with your Beginning Magic Manual for the INTERMEDIATE MAGIC MANUAL.
Advanced Magic Manual (http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=2272)
The final step in this part of the quest series is located in the same tower as the previous two. Speaking to Zalil Nyvin reveals that he needs four items from you before you have reached the advanced level of magical study. These are:
[list=1]
- A Tornado Gem - from wind/tornado giants in BoT
- A Battle Worn Trinket - from Tactics (Diaku?)
- A Blue Diamond - looted or bazaar bought
- Intermediate Magic Manual[/list:o]
The tornado gem needs to be looted (or MQ'd) as does the Intermediate Magic Manual (which can also be MQ'd) the battle worn trinket can be bazaar bought, as can the blue diamond. Compared to getting the Heart of Vhaksiz, this is relatively easy, assuming you have access to both BoT and Tactics.
Hand-in results in the ADVANCED MAGIC MANUAL.
The Second part of the the manual section is the knowledge of stealth.
Beginning Stealth Manual (http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=2216)
The path of stealth knowledge begins with Winon Glahar, located in the neutral tower of PoK. This is the complementary tower to the one you started the magic path in, but located near the PoK soulbinder.
Loc: n115, p60
Winon needs a Planar Peridot Encrusted Stein and your Planar Traveller's Manual in order to let you move on to the next step of the path of stealth. The stein can be created using a pottery skill of >200 (havent been able to verify trivial yet) or it can be bought in the bazaar (if you buy it, make sure you purchase the correct one -- planar PERIDOT encrusted stein -- lots look a like but are the wrong gem).
Components: Block of tanaan clay, ceramic lining sketch, sculpting tools, tainted planar essence, and a water flask - placed in a tanaan pottery wheel.
Unfired planar stein is then placed in a kiln to finish the piece:
Components: Crystalline valor glaze, HQ firing sheet, lacquered peridot, unfired planar stein - placed in a tanaan kiln.
Handing in the finished stein and your Planar Traveller's Guide to Winon results in your Beginner Stealth Manual.
Intermediate Stealth Manual (http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=2238)
Located next to Winon is Leramas Feston. Leramas will teach you what is needed for your next stealth book, but in order to be assured that you have the skills that you say you do, he wants you to bring him the head of a nasty rodent from the Plane of Disease, Rallius Rattican (http://eqbeastiary.allakhazam.com/search.shtml?id=10215).
Rattican can be found in the rat caves located beyond the spiders on the western side of the zone. He is a few rooms in, and difficult to get to solo for most. He is definitely not soloable by a beastlord, but a bard might be able to DA/Fading Memory their way in and out, then chant him down (assuming things havent changed too much since the last patch). He always drops the head and seems to be a three day spawn +/- a few hours.
Once you have his head, bring it and your Planar Traveller's Manual back to Leramas for your INTERMEDIATE STEALTH MANUAL.
Advanced Stealth Manual (http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=2239)
Finally, after appeasing Winon and Leramas, Ethoach Trokith will speak with you (he is in the same location as the previous two) and tell you how you can become adept at the arts of stealth. His quest involves a collection of relatively common items from BoT and Tactics along with a blue diamond and your Intermediate Stealth Manual.
Needed are:
[list=1]
- A Blizzard Gem - From the blizzard giants of the north wing of BoT
- A Symbol of the Diaku - from Tactics (mob?)
- A Blue Diamond
- Intermediate Stealth Manual
[/list:o]
Collecting these items is easy if you are flagged, or can be purchased if you are not. Completing this shows you are skilled in the way of stealth (though how killing mobs makes that so, who knows!) and you are given your ADVANCED STEALTH MANUAL. Put this away in your bank and then finish the last sub-section, the combat path.
The third and final path to follow is to learn the Knowledge of Combat.
Beginning Combat Manual (http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=2214)
Seek out Zauvudd Gigoth in the evil section of PoK. He too is in the matching buttressed tower-like building that you found the other two manual quests in. Bring your last Planar Traveller's Manual and speak with him, and he lets you in on the secret item he needs to start your training: Planar Blood Brew.
As you can imagine, this brew requires the brewing tradeskill to make, and EQtraders lists it in the >200 range of difficulty. This item, like the previous two tradeskilled ones, can be purchased from the bazaar as well.
Planar Blood Brew
Components: Bubonian blood (PoD), nightmare mephit blood (PoN), slarghilug blood (PoN), cork, cask, soda water, grapes, corking device (tinkered) - placed in a tanaan brewing barrel.
At time of writing, the slarghilug blood is the only no-drop piece, so if you want someone to make it for you, you will have to drag them to PoN to get it.
The resulting brew, along with your Planar Traveller's Manual is returned as the BEGINNING COMBAT MANUAL.
Intermediate Combat Manual (http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=2226)
Xasri Virek, located next to Zauvudd begins the next quest. Xasri will teach you what is needed for your intermediate combat manual, but first he wants you to prove your worth. Unfortunately for you, he requires probably the most tedious and dull portion of the quest for you to continue - The Junk Beast Power Source.
The Junk Beast is a rare spawn in the Plane of Innovation. He hits like a brick, procs a AE blind, and doesnt show up very often. His piece is MQ'able however, and I fully suggest trying to buy it if you can afford not having to waste the time going after him. A discussion about the Junk Beast can be found here (http://eqbeastiary.allakhazam.com/search.shtml?id=10122).
If and when you are auctioning for this piece, make sure it's the Junk Beast Power Source, not any of the pieces needed to power up Xanamech (the dragon in PoI) there is a lot of confusion on Xev for people that thought they had the piece, but really only had the Xana pieces.
Turn in the book and the Power Source in to receive the INTERMEDIATE COMBAT MANUAL.
Advanced Combat Manual (http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=2227)
Finally you have gotten to the last part of the manual sub-quests. Gwiraba Gerid needs you to bring him four different items (noticing a trend yet? :)) For this one you need to get the following (again, all MQ'able or collectable with Tactics/BoT flags):
[list=1]
- A Sandstorm Gem - BoT South Wing
- A Rage Filled Gem - Tactics, off Hendin Shadow Masters or Anival The Blade (confirmed, might be others)
- A Blue Diamond
- Intermediate Combat Manual
[/list:o]
Give him all the pieces to receive your ADVANCED COMBAT MANUAL.
Congratulations, you are done with the "hard" part! Now, while the three manuals are nice range items by themselves, the real reason you started this quest is to be finally completed with one more piece.
The Three Manuals (http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=2273)
Locate Tenada Jeried in the neutral tower where you completed the path of Stealth. Initiate conversation with this:
You say, 'I am interested in learning from you'
Tanada Jeried considers for a moment and continues, 'Very well, but first you must prove that you are student of the advanced arts. In order to do this, you will need to collect each of the advanced manuals in combat, stealth, and magic. You will also need to seek out a prized possession known as a Hope Stone. I believe it currently lies somewhere in the elemental planes. Return to me with these four tools of learning, and only then will you be truly worthy of what secrets the planes have to offer.'
The Hope Stone drops from various mobs in the elemental planes -- the one I used came from the Plane of Fire off of a random higher level mob (I MQ'd mine, so not sure the exact name of the mob). From what I have heard, it is a rare drop, but not exceptionally rare. Each of the Elemental Planes should have this dropping in it somewhere.
Hand in the Hope Stone, along with each of the three Advanced Manuals:
Tanada Jeried's eyes go wide. This is incredible! You have proven yourself to be truly worthy of these planar secrets, ______. May its knowledge contained within guide you safely wherever you travel.
Congratulations -- you have received your Secret of the Planes!
Secrets of the Planes
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO DROP
Slot: RANGE SECONDARY
AC: 20
Skill Mod: Dodge +5%
STR: +15 DEX: +15 STA: +15 WIS: +15 INT: +15 AGI: +15 HP: +100 MANA: +100
SV FIRE: +10 SV DISEASE: +10 SV COLD: +10 SV MAGIC: +10 SV POISON: +10
Recommended level of 60.
Effect: Vengeance III (Worn)
Focus: Conservation of Solusek
WT: 2.0 Size: SMALL
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Slot 1, type 7:
Vengeance III is an added 15 attack
Conservation of Solusek
[list=1]
- Decrease Spell Mana Cost by 15%
- Limit: Max Level(65)
- Limit: Spell(Complete Healing excluded)
- Limit: Spell Type(Detrimental only)
[/list:o]
The material used to create this guide was pulled from a variety of sources and boards, most notably Allakhazam's (http://everquest.allakhazam.com), EQTraders (http://www.eqtraders.com), and forums at The Safehouse (http://www.thesafehouse.org). The text and layout above are my own.
Edit: Fixed a bad link -DiosT
Edit: Fixed the rest of the links that were pointing wrong - Mtinie
A very good and helpful post 8)
This quest next to the "Prayer Shawl" is an Excellent upgrade item for any beastlord that is progressing thru the elemental planes.
Slot: 7 - even provides another option to upgrade.
Compared to what I used before this item - the "Secrets of the Planes" was a beneficial upgrade for me.
The item served its purpose, up until poTime.
hmm...
check the links, most all of them are incorrect :-/
Pesky link-gnomes getting into the code again. I verified just now and they all should be working after a re-evaluation. Let me know if you find any additional broken ones that have somehow eluded me.
Thanks!
RE: Vhaksiz: Your mention of 2clr/1rog strategy intrigues me. Is it possible to drag a mage corpse up top and have cleric rez him from below the plateau? Then CoTH raid up? Any information about minimum numbers/tactics for this mob would be appreciated as it's 1 of 2 drops I need to complete this quest.
The day I luck into a hope stone is the day I bang out these quests..
Quote from: NusaThe day I luck into a hope stone is the day I bang out these quests..
A Hope Stone (http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=18124) is multi-questable.
As a matter of fact quite a few of the No Drop items are multi-questable if I remember correctly.
Tytallia: CotH does not work iirc in PoN. However, picture this:
From zone in, work your way north past the river and to the base of the plateau that Vhaksiz is located. The hill is just high enough for you not to climb it. There is a tunnel that leads up to the top of the plateau, but it passes through the pain in rear hobgoblins -- invis doesnt work here, but rogue SoS does. Select a cleric from the two you brought (you brought two right?) and have them suicide against a mob (you need more than the 5 minutes for a duel on this first corpse, the rest can be done with /duel) then have the rogue drag them up the tunnel and on to the plateau, right above where you are standing. Your second cleric rezes from below, then begin your /duel-rez chain with everyone you need to move up top. (/duel, consent someone up top, have them target, /corpse, then rez when they pop up top).
Hope that helps.
I have a question. I know the hope stone is multi questable but I heard from someone you need to be elemental flagged to get the final manual. Does anyone know if this is the case or can it be done without needing flags?
It can be done without elemental flags; several people in my guild have the final manual, and we aren't ele flagged.
I was not elemental plane capable when I did this quest (and I still am not). You cannot get the text for the quest from the final NPC, however, you can still do the turn-ins. If you feel more comfortable, just have the person with the Hopestone get the dialogue.
Well Mtinie, I finally started this today myself. I even found a friend who will MQ the Hope Stone for free once I get there. Anyhow, I need to work my brewing to get Planar Blood Brew since I haven't seen any for sale in the bazaar lately. I got my Advanced Stealth Manual tonight and the beginners Magic Manual. Junk Beast MQ anyone on the Xev server? :P